The Grand National is arguably the pinnacle of UK horse racing, with the race itself commanding the highest prize for winning. Last year’s winner, One For Arthur became only the second horse trained in Scotland to win the race and finished four and a half lengths ahead of Cause of Causes.
Blaklion is the favourite on the latest on the Grand National bets for 2018 while Total Recall and the Last Samuri are not far behind this year’s favourite. Blaklion finished fourth in last year’s race and will be hoping to improve on that position in this year’s race.
The preparations for the Grand National are already underway, with the racecourse requiring months of work to get everything just right. Everything from making sure the going is perfect to completing the construction of the sixteen fences. The Grand National course itself is one of the most demanding courses in the country for the horses to race, while the construction of the fences and the ground preparation are equally demanding. It takes roughly three weeks to prepare the course with each of the sixteen fences taking two days to construct and dress.
For the day of the Grand National there is a huge increase in the number of ground staff that are on site to make sure everything is perfect for the big race. On this day there are usually 225 ground staff, whereas a normal race day at Aintree will only see forty members of the grounds team on site.
Our Friends at Betfair created the following infographic which describes all of the different stages that are involved in getting the Aintree race course ready for one of the biggest races in British racing.
Posted under Major Horse Races
This post was written by Horse Betting Blog on February 28, 2018